Blogging Along

Slowing down on registering domains and booking catches with catch services just lately. Everyone is feeling the pinch and need more time to develop domains I already have anyway. Spending £30 – £50 for a catch is all good and well but need to be followed up with a live indexed site.

Humber wind farms or the whole wind farm idea in the Holderness East coast area seems a fab prospect for the area business,  jobs and just the green side of it. Myself I think we should dam part of the Humber off and be 100% guaranteed energy but I’m sure that won’t happen in my life time and the depth just isn’t there.

Looking forward I need to split myself into 50 I think or make a plan of action and STICK to it. Lots happening gand theirs me trying to juggle it all. With Humber TV’s 1 year Birthday coming up (party??)  I’m hoping that I have a set standard with all programs that get published. A nice intro tune, credits, graphics and just over all a better feel to them. This all does take time and think shows will need to be cut down more I think to a maximum of 20 minutes ish.

As mentioned in my last post – Looking at producing a few promotional videos to a fair standard at a good price for comapnies to use and for me to use on Humber TV, You Tube, Vimeo, mini websites like Hull Beds, Hull tyres. I have a few in mind which will look good and should give people and companies an idea of how it will look and work.

Keeping on domains I’m surprised none of my Premium ones haven’t been hunted down by big chains. PriceCrunch.net BodyCreams.co.uk BodyConfidence.co.uk to name just 3 as a £x’xxx or even a £xx’xxx would be nice right now. Well worth renewing and developing for an investment me thinks.

I’ll finish off by asking any businesses who spend money on advertising on or offline to get in touch to see how I can help you gain more clients by using my many portals.

So it’s been a week or so now since Coco (the puppy) arrived and has forced me to have many sleepless or broken sleep nights. Problem with the pup waking up,  it also wakes my 2 year old daughter up too :o( Not good as it works vice-versa. Life goes on and I need to catch as much shut eye when I can.

One of the interviews we recorded with Jackie Cowie, she said about weather having an affect on our happiness and well-being . Sun comes out people tend to be happier etc, well

WHAT THE FREAKING HELL IS GOING ON THIS YEAR?

The sun and temperature just needs to get it together and give us a summer we all deserve this year.

I’m finding a lot of clients are now GETTING “online marketing” and are warming to Twitter, other social media and Generic domain mini sites. This is great to see my clients I help and offer support to doing well. This made me think I maybe missing a opportunity for offering a service to all companies that need to up a gear on the online roller-coaster and maybe need to shout out a bit more.

I am finding more and more that besides other CMS’s Word Press out performs a standard html in many ways I mean

• Indexed into Search Engines faster (tried and proven)
• The ease of having 30 pages indexed with little effort to create them compared to the standard way of producing pages in HTML say using Dream Weaver
• TAGS you add to posts or pages to help identify what that post is mostly about
• You want some new feature WP will have a plugin to do it if not someone on the planet will be able to build it

The only downside is a Data base is needed to run every WP install.

So I’m off to ERBN.co.uk tonight for 7pm in the hope to spread some Humber.TV love and either get people interested in the whole idea or actual on the shows for interviews. Fingers crossed !

Attended a Hull and Humbers Chamber of Commerce speed networking and lunch today at Cave castle (FAB grounds complete with moat) and I realised I need to get out more.

I did use to go to a few networking events but was trying to promote web design and VoIP. Web design is saturated and VoIP people didn’t want to take or trial it.

So out this morning and people I spoke to warmed to the idea of my Humber.TV idea and concept which made me feel fuzzy inside! Also people came up to me and was saying “Are you Mr Humber TV?” again this was a little strange and almost felt like a celebrity  😉

The Chamber hold a speed networking and lunch every month and WILL be going to every one from now!

On another note with Humber TV Valerie Prentice (our only host) is departing to France for a month and needed a stand in. Jess from Divine Clark PR was very interested as an extra permanent host and bagged 4 interviews next week at £50 a shot for advertising. “Result” I thought and hope she keeps her intro rate up.

This made me realise I need to up a gear with the whole Humber TV game and am now on the look out for more willing people to help out on a short term volunteering basis (hope to pay on invoice for their time ASAP). Wanting people who see the potential of the concept, are willing to stick with it and help out how they can to make it work/grow.

3 days till D day, D been DOG! “WOOF WOOF”

Adsense has nicely increased daily which is nice and aren’t sure if it’s with me adding new content on a few or just people looking on-line more leading up to gardening and getting out weather.

Needed to raise some funds and sold a few domains in the past week which in one way wish I never as I let them go for peanuts but altogether made a nice tidy sum to help out. Tried to sell my scuba gear too but think it may be harder than I think due to testing etc.

Signing off and catching some Zzzzzzz

Again another late night and feel I should take time to post here as not to let it slip into a stale state.

So I buckled and have let my partner get a puppy dog which is a cross between a poodle and a shiatsu (quite cute actually). A small chocolate brown “shoodle” I think they call it and it had best behave and not yap too much! ;o) That all happens on 2nd May so the world could end before then and won’t have to suffer having a yap yap yapping dog!

Humber.TV hmmmm Well lets just say it’s a FAB concept, people warm to it, it does “Bridge the gap” as our slogan says and guests think we’re doing a grand job :o) But the thing is I’m lacking a few things to more forward – help, funding, sleep, day light and light at the end of the tunnel! This is due to the time taken up by myself setting live shows up, recording and streaming them live and then editing them ready for the site for on demand. Not to mention anything else involved in getting guests and running the site mechanics.

It has reached a point where I have been doing EVERY show LIVE and putting the webcam stream up straight away for on demand viewing after a quick edit (then when possible editing the HD camcorder shoot later). I now feel I need to go out and about to record items that arn’t LIVE but ARE up and viewable the same day. Again this is more of my time.

So 4 things I’m wanting interest for, from near and far around the Humber.

1. Big Main Sponsors or Advertisers for the site to enable me to buy extra kit and improve shows
2. People willing to shoot video and take down local stories from across the Humber region to include on the site.
3. Interviewers or Guest harvesters for up and coming shows. (booking Guests / Advertisers)
4. Anyone wanting to learn the very basics of how we stream, edit video and anything I know about what we’re doing here at Humber.TV to help in any way possible (tonns still to learn but hey we’ll get there, as I’m far from an expert LOL).

Do you meet or maybe smiled at any of the above requests? Then contact me through Humber.TV web site stating this blog. I then do hope we can work together to make the Web site work it’s ass off for the people/businesses of the Humber and make it a name people talk about.

Hopefully this will stop me going over the edge and ease my work addiction/need from 6:00am till very late every day and I may just be able to get a life and sleep back so I can enjoy the trip that Humber TV is taking us on.

Final Thought to self! I do have 100’s of Hull and other Geo service domains as mentioned before and really need to get my finger out and get them earning. Which if I did would earn I would say £60 a day between them all! Visit Hull Local to see the effort so far and one of the mini sites may fit your area of business.

Sorry if it’s all over this blog but been a long day/week ;o)

Bit of a waffle post but keep with it ;o)

So I now reluctantly have an iPhone and surprisingly like it! I did want the HD2 but VodaFone stopped stocking them and was offered an iPhone. I can see how people spend £s on Apps the first few weeks of getting one, which can be a bit of a money pit.

I thought my iPhone died today as it wouldn’t turn on with it even been fully charged. In the end I tried the home button AND the power button which I think is a trick on the Ipod. This kicked it into life (bizarre) and I was a happy man again.

So Humber.TV hmm I wanted it separate from Media Blocks Ltd and so asked my accountant about my online TV venture Humber Media Network as it now is and was told it was going to cost £400 + VAT. “ok” i said “I’ll have a think” WTF I thought, a little steep. A little digging and asking around I found The company warehouse Called them up and asked loads of questions and it was done and dusted in 20 minutes. May I add they have great phone support and people working for them! Got all documents, shares, minutes, etc for £111 INC VAT in the post today FANTASTIC!

So Humber Media Network Limited was born, as I decided not to limit it’s size by just using Humber.TV as a name and Humber Media Network was like an umbrella name. Opening an account next week with Lloyds TSB again and already have payments from clients waiting for it to become live.

With all my ideas, I do always seem to be burning lots of candles at both ends and running around trying to juggle life, work and pushing ideas to the MAX. Recently I have taken on offered help (rare for me) by people I have met or knew already and is working out great! Still need to have a chat with a few more people but I’m liking team work and building.

Up to now Interviewers / Hosts for podcast shows, editor for the post production and sound checker for the audio setup to give it a once over for optimum quality.

I have been spending quite a bit of money (bucket fulls) on kit, software, and structure for the pod-casting / video venture but have had so much positiveness from people who we’ve had to interview I know it’s all worth or going to be worth every penny and minute spent on it.

Mentioning the people we’ve had on, we have had some great people and don’t want to list them all but 3 that many will know because of their businesses and exposure are:

• Geof Brooke – Brooke Tiles (now a Humber.TV Advertiser YEAH!)
• Jonathan Elvidge – (Gadget Shop) RED5 (Great guy to lookup to and follow)
• Paul Sewell – Sewell Group (Beams positiveness and knows business)

All the above people just made me more determined to make this venture succeed and grow for the Humber area!

One of my teeth decided a filling had been in long enough and fall out and taken half my tooth with it, which is no fun and the sharp edge it left cut my tongue to bits. 🙁 All sorted now with a temp filling and feels much better and will be fixed in March.

Found out this week Gradwell (VoIP supplier) are having issues with call pick up, meaning you can’t pick another call up remotely from your desk phone in the office. That’s a bit of a pain for some of my clients, but hey ho life does go on.

Final thoughts for this post, and maybe words of wisdom?!

• Use ideas that work and duplicate in business to succeed.
• Home in on business that your good at and enjoy.
• Never trust people who lie, even if it was just once.

Just a quick post and a few requests really.

Ok I have so many ideas and tasks to do that I don’t benefit financially from (YET) I am opening my arms to anyone wanting to get involved with (the below post) Humber.TV

People possibly needed for the following tasks below, all of which I can do but I don’t have 12 arms, 6 heads and 50 hours in a day!

• Graphic designer (show and site logo’s for shows)
• Voice over (some people with great sounding voices)
• Transcription (turning shows into text)
• Video Editor (tidying shows up and adding adverts)
• Marketing (the idea to advertise on shows)

I am getting a lot of positive feed back and people wanting to be involved in shows, so do YOU?

Do you want a slot to discuss the papers or latest news?

Maybe your into gadgets and have 3 you want to tell more on.

Are you an expert in starting up a small business and can explain and answer questions in how to do it.

Which pubs, bands, clubs or just nights out in general are shining in your area and why?

The Humber is a big area to cover for one person and would be sensible to have area helpers who orchestrate the people and shows for LIVE streams. Shows will then be ready for the broadcasting kit to just arrive at a designated venue and got for it. Local knowledge is better from a local person!

So does that sound a plan? Contact me!

So the New Year and the 4th of Jan 2010 filled me full of positiveness, calls and emails streamed in!

Most of my work is Web site design, building and have wanted other projects to make that percentage less one sided. (eggs in one basket and all that) Their isn’t a day that goes by when I have an idea, whether it’s for a new mini site or a totally new project and that isn’t always a good thing.

My current project is Pod casting. Not just recorded to be downloaded to an IPOD later but LIVE scheduled streaming video with local people, businesses and groups discussing and explaining more about their areas. Whether it’s Techy, Health related, Current News, Music or business it can be anything and the good news is it’s all FREE to viewers.

The Stream will be live video and will include an option for a low quality stream or even just audio ideal for poor Internet speeds.

Both Video and Audio will be recorded for later viewing or just listening if people missed it, along with transcript and other useful information. As well as been posted to our site we will be widening our possible scope by posting to You Tube, ITunes and other media sites.

Please do contact us if you are in or have an interest in the Humber area which include the cities, towns, and villages below to name just a few:

• Hull
• Grimsby
• Scunthorpe
• Withernsea
• Hornsea
• Immingham
• Hessle
• North Ferriby
• Brough
• Goole
• Cleethorpes
• Beverley
• Cottingham
• Ellerby
• Hedon
• Preston
• Barton Upon Humber

We’ve ran many tests, setups and believe we have a great model for the Humber area to take advantage of, so please do contact me for more details on how to take part.

We hope to run test shows towards the end of January and start streaming live scheduled shows in February.